All-Area Golf: Getting a Glimpse

But the Barstow junior was also intrigued by the golf tournaments he found on television by flipping through the channels.

"He would find it and watch it," said his father Steve Bales, who wasn't a golfer at the time.

One day, Jason asked his father if there was a place where he could do what he saw on TV. So Steve bought his son a cheap set of golf clubs from eBay and his introduction to the game began.

Fast forward to this past spring, and Bales played well enough to earn the Desert Sky League Player of the Year, and now he is the 2011 Daily Press Golf Athlete of the Year.

Bales won six of the eight Desert Sky League matches and finished with a stroke average of 75, which bested Granite Hills senior Lorenzo Morgan (76) and Victor Valley's Dane Trudeau (77.4) to meet his preseason goal of being the top golfer in the DSL. His highest 18-hole score in the regular season was an 81, and he never finished worse than third in any of the league matches.

His low scores were a 2-over 73 at Apple Valley Country Club and 1-over 73 at Silver Lakes Country Club. In league, he broke 75 five times. His only letdown came at the CIF-Southern Section Central Region Championship, where he shot an 86. The previous year as a sophomore, he advanced to the second round of CIF.

"I just wanted to be player of the year, and I ended up winning most of the matches," said Bales, who outside of a few lessons is self-taught. "(Having the lowest league scoring average was a result of) staying focused and being driven to be that good, practicing a lot, hitting a lot of range balls."

In league play Bales was usually paired with Morgan and Trudeau, and he said it helped him that they were so close in scoring average.

"It pushed me to play better, to stay focused, because I knew I would have guys right there with me if I messed up," Bales said.

His biggest accomplishment outside of league was beating Serrano freshman and Mojave River League MVP Andy Hwang 2-up in the High Desert Cup's match play portion. It salvaged the day after Bales and his partner, Victor Valley's Andrew Dominguez, struggled in the best ball and alternate shot formats.

Bales said he asked his coach to play him against Hwang.

"I wanted to beat him," Bales said. " I knew it was going to be tough, but I pulled it off. I was just happy, just stayed focused the entire match, kept my head down. I didn't really worry about what he was doing, I just tried to shoot par."

While Bales began playing as a youngster, he quit the sport for four years shortly after starting out.

His father said Bales hit the ball well for a kid his age, but he started to play with the olderkids and he didn't hit it as far as them.

"He did that for a little while and then he got mad. He quit playing," Steve said.

During middle school, Bales started to grow (he now stands at about 6-foot-4). It was during the summer between seventh and eighth grade when family friend Garrett Roth — who was on the Barstow golf team at the time — and a couple of Bales' cousins were going golfing. Roth invited Bales to tag along, and he returned with a new love for the game.

"He came home with his face lit up. 'Dad, you gotta see that ball go now!' " Steve recalled.

Bales was hooked and he began playing frequently and often with Roth. He even made a hole-in-one twice on the par-3 fifth hole at Tees and Trees Golf Course in back-to-back months, once from the blue tees and the other on the white tees.

"I was so excited," said Bales. "Best thing I ever did in golf."

About 12 years after first catching golf fever through televised golf tournaments, Bales is still tuned in. He also watches golf instruction shows on the Golf Channel and instructional videos from Michael Breed, the host of The Golf Fix on the network.

Next season, Bales hopes to go a little bit further in the postseason and then wants to play in college while pursuing an engineering degree.

"I'm glad (I decided to start playing again), because I'm successful at it," Bales said. "I picked the right path to go."

ALL-AREA GOLF TEAMFIRST TEAMANDY HWANG, FR., SERRANOHwang made a splash onto the scene in his first season of prep golf, posting a 74.5 18-hole average and a 39 nine-hole average in league play to earn the Mojave River League MVP. He claimed at least a share of the league medalist honors six times and won the Beaumont Tournament.

JOHN KING, SR., SERRANOKing was a consistent contributor for the D'backs, qualifying to CIF-Southern Section Individuals by finishing third in the league standings with a 78.5 18-hole and a 41 nine-hole scoring average. He won a league tournament, placed in the top 10 in the Diamondbacks' tournament and regularly finished in the top 10 of league matches.

MATT MESSNER, SR., APPLE VALLEY CHRISTIANMessner edged out Hesperia Christian's Tyler Pedersen for the lowest Agape League season scoring average by a third of a stroke per nine-hole match and also won the league finals to earn the MVP. He was an all-Agape League honoree all four years.

LORENZO MORGAN, SR., GRANITE HILLSMorgan wrapped up Desert Sky League play with the second-best scoring average at 76. He won three league matches and only three times did he finish more than one shot back of the lead.

BEN TOLSMA, SO., APPLE VALLEYTolsma finished second in the Mojave River League standings with a 77.25 18-hole average and a 39.25 nine-hole average. Tolsma won three league matches, took home the High Desert Classic title and posted the High Desert's low score at the CIF-Southern Section Central Regional Championship.

DANE TRUDEAU, JR., VICTOR VALLEYWhile Victor Valley wasn't able to field a full team for much of the season, Trudeau had the third best scoring average in the Desert Sky League at 77.4. He won one league match and finished within three strokes of the medalist five times.

COACH OF THE YEARMIKE BROWNING, SERRANOBrowning helped turn a program that had been the doormat of the Mojave River League into a league champion in his second season. Besides winning a league title, Serrano also went undefeated in dual matches.